Occupational health and safety news and guidance

A Portsmouth steel manufacturer has been sentenced after one of its workers suffered life-changing injuries when he was hit by a falling 1.4 tonne steel beam.

Conder Allslade was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for serious safety failings that led to the incident at its factory in Hillsea on 10 June 2011.

The 64-year-old man was airlifted to Southampton hospital after being crushed by the toppling steel beam. He suffered numerous injuries including a fractured skull, two crushed discs in his back, a broken knee and ankle bones, as well as a blood clot on his lung.

On 23 April, Portsmouth magistrates were told that the employee, a fabricator/welder, was working on a steel beam that was sitting unsecured on a metal trolley. He was manoeuvring an overhead crane when the hook of the crane struck the beam and sent it toppling from the trolley.

The beam struck the worker causing life-threatening injuries. He remained in hospital for a month and, some two years later, is still having to undergo surgery and treatment.

HSE served a Prohibition Notice on Conder Allslade after the incident to prevent any further work on steel beams while unsupported on the trolleys.

An investigation found the company had not carried out a proper assessment of the risks involved in that particular work process, and so had failed to put in simple safety measures that would have prevented beams from being knocked and becoming dangerously unstable.

Conder Allslade Ltd. of Limberline Road, Portsmouth, was fined a total of £16,000 and ordered to pay £5,074 in costs after pleading guilty to single breaches of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.